Despair has no place here
by Jario5615
Summary: Despair never took over Hope's Peak Academy. The world never ended. Here we have Class 78 living out their school lives as they were meant to, and form lasting bonds with their classmates. Non-Despair AU (if that wasn't obvious by now) and rated T for now.


Makoto Naegi was late for his first day at Hope's Peak Academy.

It was just his luck that his alarm had broken when he hit the snooze button without thinking. Luckily, he was awoken by his younger sister calling him on his phone at just after 8 to wish him good luck on his first day, and learnt just how much he had overslept. He groaned after he hung up when he looked at his alarm clock; it read 86:74.

After foregoing breakfast to make up for lost time, he eventually skidded around the corner to where the entrance to Hope's Peak lay. The large clock campus informed him of the time: 8:53. He wasn't late yet. Once he found his way to the hall where the entrance ceremony was taking place, he finally stopped to catch his breath.

Calling the gymnasium large was an understatement. It was apparently dual purpose, with a defined balcony on a second floor, and a stage that took up the entirety of one side of the building. Not to say that there weren't clear signs of the building also being a gym as well as an auditorium; there were nets and some climbing ropes tucked in the corner of the hall. Glancing around for where he was supposed to be sitting, he noticed a sign which indicated that the main course students were situated on the balcony up the nearby staircase. So, he clambered up them, still out of breath.

On the balcony were 32 seats. 16 of them had 'Class 77' on a sign in front of them, the other sixteen, 'Class 78'. Makoto approached the latter group of students – his new classmates. The dozen or so students seated were unique to say the least; their appearances went from prim and proper, to normal, to a bit out there. Most of them were in conversation with each other, but he distinctly heard one of them criticising something being _not suitable for a school environment_ or something like that. As he approached his new classmates, a blue haired girl glanced at him whilst in conversation with the large, muscly girl next to her, and her face lit up at once. She looked familiar to him, and apparently, the reverse was also true.

"Makoto? Makoto Naegi?" The blue haired girl was now calling his name. She looked _extremely_ familiar. And then it hit him.

"S-Sayaka?" Her face widened into a broad smile.

"Oh, you _do_ remember me! I'm glad I know someone here already." Know him. Know _him_? Sayaka Maizono had been in a completely different league to him at their previous school. How on earth did she remember him of all people.

"I'm more surprised you remember me, b-because-"

"Because I was popular? Makoto, we shared a number of classes, and I sat next you in a few of them. Of course I'd remember you, silly!"

Makoto felt himself blushing slightly, and Sayaka giggled again. She tapped the vacant chair next to her and he sheepishly sat in it.

"Oh" Sayaka said, once Makoto had sat down "This is Sakura by the way" She indicated to the muscled girl who Makoto was now also sitting next to.

"Hello Makoto." Sakura nodded her head slightly as she acknowledged him. He managed to squeak a _Hello_ in reply. Sakura smiled back at him – she was clearly used to this response to her and was not offended by Makoto's shyness.

They talked for a while until at 9'o-clock sharp, the whole hall immediately quietened. Peering between the shoulders of the two girls sitting in front of him (at least he thought they were both girls - one was most definitely a girl but the other he couldn't quite tell), he saw the headmaster walking to the centre stage below them. The screen behind him highlighted his name as Jin Kirigiri.

"To our new students: Welcome to Hope's Peak Academy. To our old students: Welcome back." Makoto half listened to what the headmaster had to say. From what he could tell, it was mostly him repeating the school values, and for the students to achieve the best they could – the usual headmastery things. He had already studied the school's prospectus, so he had already read these words before. He was struggling to keep his eyes open, as for whatever reason he still felt tired...

* * *

"Did you not get much sleep last night" He heard a voice sometime later whispering in his ear.

"Mhm? Oh yeah, I was too excited and couldn't sleep that well" Makoto mumbled back to the voice. It took him a few seconds to realise he was leaning on something. He opens his eyes to see his vision obscured by streams of silky blue. He caught the scent of it and was embraced with a flowery grace.

It was at this point where Makoto's brain decided to kickstart itself into realising he was actually leaning not on something, but on someone. After realising that he had not been smelling blue silk, he quickly sat bolt upright red as a beet, and turned to see Sayaka trying to supress an outburst of hysteric laughter.

"Sorry! I didn't realise I'd fallen asleep! I didn't mean too-"

"It's alright Makoto, it looked like you needed the sleep anyway. Besides," Sayaka's face flushed red "I never said I minded"

Luckily, they were interrupted by rest of the school applauding the headmaster as he left the stage, and everyone began to get up out of their seats. Makoto glanced at the large clock in the hall. It read it as being a little after 9:30. He hoped he hadn't missed anything important.

"Alright, Class 78 follow me" A blonde man with a wispy beard was standing behind them. Once he had got the attention of the whole class, he signalled them to follow him, and headed down the staircase. The class followed suit.

* * *

At the back of the group, a thin girl with shoulder length black hair walked alone. She had no desire to know her classmates. Of the 16 seats that should have seated the 78th class only 15 were filled.

She had little idea of exactly what emotions were flowing through her right now. Sadness? Anger? Fear?

All she knew was that despair did not taste good. Mukuro Ikusaba now hated her sister.

She had said despair was the best, despair is what all humans craved, is where humans acted at their best, is where humans showed their true nature.

But Mukuro Ikusaba did not like this despair. It consumed her but she did not feel good. She did not feel she wanted this. She did not feel at her best, she did not feel this was her true self.

Mukuro Ikusaba now hated her sister. Because her sister had abandoned her for good.

Because Junko Enoshima was dead.


End file.
